This was an enjoyable design to make, but I needed five compartments for my red and white soap batter. Unfortunately, my divider tool only accommodates up to four sections. Even red and white stripes didn’t seem quite right, so I ended up making cardboard dividers. However, they tend to shift and aren’t as reliable. I haven’t found a five-compartment divider for sale yet, but I’ve made mental notes for future attempts, which should work better. A laser printer/cutter would be a handy tool for projects like this.

After pouring the red and white sections partway up the mold, I removed the cardboard dividers and filled the remaining space with blue to cover the stripes. The stars you see were made with my own recipe for glycerin soap (also known as melt-and-pour soap).

I avoid commercial melt-and-pour bases because they contain detergents, which defeats the purpose of making my own soap—to avoid detergents.

Though there are gentler detergents available today, I’ve found no liquid cleanser or body detergent bar that doesn’t cause transepidermal water loss (TEWL). My fingers will literally crack and bleed, and the backs of my hands will become like sandpaper with layers of lifted, dried skin cells. This plight has plagued me since childhood, until I began making and using my own soap.